Dubai has never stood still, never accepted the status quo, and has never simply been satisfied with the way things are. Its leadership and government has instead always striven to improve, to offer new and better ways of providing services to the people of Dubai, and has actively pursued positive ways of improving the quality of life for present and future generations.
On Saturday, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, acting in his capacity as the Ruler of Dubai, outlined plans to renew and re-energise the emirate and its administration and set it on a path ready to embrace a rapidly changing world rife with competition.
In an open letter to the people of Dubai to mark the 14th anniversary of his accession as Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed said that what has worked for the past may not work for the future. “What benefited us in the past 20 years may be not be useful for the next 20,” he said, adding “time makes it an imperative to change tools, renew institutions and tackle recessions. In the same way, the future compels us to have new blood, restructure our culture and ideas to ensure that we achieve real changes over the coming period.”
With those goals firmly in mind, Sheikh Mohammed announced the immediate setting up of a Dubai Council — to oversee six areas of strategic growth in the emirate. With Sheikh Mohammed as chairman of the Council, there will be six committees to focus on driving change in Dubai, overseeing social and economic governance, improving its economic competitiveness, developing its economic leadership and driving the emirate’s appeal — all with the goal of making Dubai the best city to live in.
Six senior officials from the relevant sectors will be responsible for identifying and putting plans into action. Whether these will take the shape of new mega projects, open up new development sectors, harness opportunities, direct government and semi-government companies and cover all of the development indicators — the over-riding factor is to set Dubai on an exciting and unrivalled path for growth over the next five decades.
This blueprint for change sets Dubai on course to enhance and expand the role it has carved out under Sheikh Mohammed’s extraordinary 14 years at its helm. Certainly, no one can ever say Dubai stood still and waited for the future to happen.
